The Discipline of the R. O. T. C.

(We invite all men in the University to submit communications on subjects of timely interest, but assume no responsibility for sentiments expressed under this head.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I think that a certain number of people were surprised to see, yesterday, in the CRIMSON, on the same page, two articles about the R. O. T. C., one of them entitled "Regiment successful in exercises: work pleased Morize"--and the other: "Col. Applin criticizes discipline in the Corps." That impression must have been still stronger for the readers of the Boston papers, which reproduced those two articles in the same column, incompletely, and without any comment.

Thursday afternoon, we had a combat exercise at Fresh Pond. This exercise, in extended order, was worked out on a large field. The maneuver consisted in the carrying out of rather complicated orders. Colonel Applin did not attend that exercise: his remarks, therefore, cannot apply to it. President Lowell, the Board of Overseers, and several officers of the U. S. Army and Navy observed all the phases of the maneuver. They were impressed, as I was myself, by the precision and regularity of all the movements and deployments, by the flexibility of the formations. The exercise gave me entire satisfaction, because the members of the R. O. T. C. proved that they have acquired a clear idea of the duties of the soldier on the terrain, and have thoroughly assimilated the teaching of the methods and tactics of modern warfare.

Colonel Applin saw the Regiment only when we were leaving Fresh Pond to return to Cambridge. He could see then, as I did myself, that the manual of arms was somewhat listless, that our band played, with an irregular rhythm, tunes of a rather funereal character, and that the marching lacked energy and snap. These criticisms do not surprise me at all: I expressed them many times after each exercise, and especially at the beginning of a recent lecture.

I want to make clear this point, that I completely agree with Col. Applin as far as this subject is concerned. I am very grateful to him for having backed up with his high authority the criticism I expressed so often. Our men must acquire more precision and more snap in all the close order exercises, in marching, and in all these details which give troops a good military appearance, and impress in a favorable way the civilian spectators.

So far, the whole Regiment has had but a few opportunities to drill since the return of fine weather. More and more we shall insist on that point, and everybody in the Corps will be eager to do his best in order that the Harvard R. O. T. C. may maintain and deserve its reputation.

But the discipline in close order ought not to be confused with discipline itself. Discipline creates the moral cohesion, which binds together all the members of the same unit, linking in an invisible chain men and officers, so that, in any formation, in any situation, however critical it may be, the soldier follows his leader and entirely submits to his will and inspiration. Precision and snap in close order must be improved in the regiment: we are going to work at it, harder and harder. But the discipline itself, the real and necessary discipline, men already have. ANDRE MORIZE.